A little bit about who is John Freeman? I was born hearing on the left side but probably completely deaf on the right. I cruised thru grade school no problem with speech learned English and Spanish. I grew up in Puerto Rico. Then when I was probably 16 years old one day surfing I got out of the water with ringing in the ears. Ahhh! told my parents about this "noise" in my ears. They took me to a doctor in Puerto Rico this is in the early 70's. The doctor did a ton of testing and told me, "you have sensoryneural loss on the left side and total loss on the right side". It was not to my surprise on the right side. Started with hearing aids in the middle of my high school at the age of 16. Of course I was not going to use them. Can you imagine a teenager wearing a hearing aid? Yes I bet for some of you.. but at least for me it was not cool.. anyway.. While attending college working on my computer science major I met my current wife. She told me, "if you want to date me you need to use the hearing aid", of course I did. Fast forward to fall 2006. Working onsite, in Ft Lauderdale FL, at one of my customers doing programming I notice the hearing aid not working well. So decided to explore the cochlear implant. I searched and found University of Miami Ear Institute. Opened the list of doctors and was very impressed with Dr. Thomas Balkany. Requested information and went to see him. Got evaluated by the cochlear implant team and in April 3rd 2007 got implanted on the right side. Activated on May 14 2007. For the past 1 1/2 year using the implant on the right side I have experienced a huge life changing event. My brain remembers a lot of sounds that were brought back to my current memory thanks to the implant on the right side. I have a huge list of "CI Moments" just to name a few, music all kinds of music, I have an iPod with so far 250 sounds and still loaging. Water running, birds, soft sounds etc. Again is been a huge life changing events. I joined Cochlear Awareness Network and met my manager Brandy Harvey and another life changing event. From there I have met a lot of wonderful volunteers in our Southeast region. This year, 2008, June 3rd got implanted on the left side for bilateral CI. Activation day is schedule for June 30, 2008. The implant center the same, University of Miami the same doctor, Dr. Balkany.

 

August 20th, 2007.

 

After my activation day June 30, 2008 I flew back home to Atlanta was a little sad because I was expecting to hear much better than the first activation day. So while riding on MARTA the train system of Atlanta I decided to hook my iPod. Once I did this and started to listen to my music this made my more happy or at least remove some of my first day activation sadness. Days went by I returned to work then one day my boss comes to me and spell the initials of a file "RUCKP" and WOW I understood everything. Another good day. Days like that one continue to come and on my 3rd mapping session the audi tweak the processor just a little bit. Of course the audi is in Miami so I flew. Returning back home I decided to call my 2nd daughter, Ani Cristy. Guess what! I was able to understand everything she say on the phone. Another good day! That same day while driving, you are not suppose to talk on the phone and drive, but I was so excited that I started to call a bunch of people on the phone. Called my buddy in Clearwater, my daughers, wife, my mom, sisters etc etc. I felt and still feel like a little kid with a cell phone for the first time. I am still calling people on the phone. Today August 20th I did my first phone interview, yes I am looking for another job or contract and it did not go good but I made a mistake. The mistake is I forgot to tell the other people that I have a cochlear implant and I was using the phone for the first time in 15 years. So was doing my best with the phone. So... folks don't be shy of telling people about the implant. I won't be any more... August 25th, joined agbell.org I encourage those who can afford it to join this organization.

 

October 5th 2008.

 

After looking for a job or a contract in my field of expertise, IT I finally found a contract to hire in Temple, Tx. So I have to relocate to Temple, Tx starting Tuesday October 7th, 2008. The pay is not great but is a job money keeps coming in and bills get paid. These times are scary and everyone is loosing their jobs here and there. Niki Wollen the HR Specialist from Cochlear Americas call me on Thursday October 2nd to tell me about my application to work for Cochlear as an Awareness Manager for the Ohio Valley. Unfortunately they decided to select another candidate, she is an audiologyst with bilateral implant. I was no competition with her. Is ok with me the job with Cochlear Americas was not for me at this time. This past weekend, October 3rd and 4th we had Petit Lemans in RoadAtlanta race track. I worked the pit/grid and as a Corner Marshal. I had the chance to get right there on the action with big time race cars and race cars drivers. Not that many Cochlear Implant Recipients do this. The big race was on Saturday October 4th, 2008 Petit Lemans. Four clases of cars, Lemans P1, Lemans P2, IMSA GT1 and IMSA GT2. These cars were reaching speeds of 200 to 205 mph on the back straight of RoadAtlanta track. I was working the front straight and had to turn off my processors and I could still hear these cars going by my station. That's how loud they were. Since I am going to be in Texas for 4 months I am planning on joining Texas Cochlear Volunteers. October 7th, 2008. First day at McLane Advance Technologies all I can say is WOW. What a company and what a great CEO. He is really a business man that has business that are around human consumptions. He does a lot of food business, candies etc can't go into details. He is also the owner of the Houston Astros another WOW. Well I will be doing some of my old programming stuff but also learn new stuff and get paid for it. The salary pay is not what I was expecting for now but it will be better down the road. 

 

 

November 3rd 2008 update..

 

Been here in Texas for almost a month. ALready have an apartment with just a basic furniture, a bed and tv and tv stand and kitchen stuff for cooking.

 

On my first month here at McLane I have been able to participate in Conference calls with our clients in meetings and even in live conference calls. Isn't this WONDERFUL!

 

Me in the old days of HA I would have never thought participating a conference call even leading a conference call. Oh what a WONDERFUL device Cochlear have invented.

 

Went to my first auto race here in Texas as a corner worker and yesterday, Sunday Nov 2nd working on a corner a car spins right in front of us and is in the middle of the track. Another corner worker yells at me "waived" meaning, waive the YELLOW flag. Guess what I understood "RED" oh yeah so I drop the YELLOW flag and pick up the RED when another corner worker picks the YELLOW flag from the floor and waive it at the other cars approching the corner.

 

Still need more training with then implant but that is nothing compare to what I can hear now vs the HA days.

 

November 8th and 9th.

 

Worked both days at the American Road Race of Champions in Road Atlanta track. Awesome!

 

On Sunday the 9th I had a PDX (Performance Driving Ex